Watched a frustrating match yesterday at Horton... By the way, this incident aside, it was a good tourney.

Also, please note that none of these kids involved are from our club and I know neither of the kids or their coaches. I am just a first year assistant coach who was waiting for a match to begin on an adjacent mat. I was however, very glad IT WAS NOT one of my wrestlers involved.

In the second period of an 8/U match, both wrestlers stopped wrestling due to a nearby whistle. One wrestler is now standing and the other is sitting on his heels as if kneeling when they break contact. The kid knelling looks toward his coach (who is off to the right), but the referee sort of gestures to the standing kid (who has how taken a few steps backward) that he didn't blow the whistle. The standing kid from about eight feet away literally dives shoulder first (from the left) into the kneeling kids ribs. Needless to say the kid on bottom is crying and mad (but not injured), and the period comes to an end a few seconds later. As the bottom kid is getting checked out, the "diver" is called over by his coach given "five" and told "good job" by his coach. {End incident one}

The hit wrestler goes on to lose the match and then proceeds to punch the mat, smack the opponents hand (as opposed to shaking hands), throw his head gear and generally have a fit all the way off the mat. {End incident two)

Some may say the kid had a right to have a fit because of the first incident, but I think neither should have happened. In total, it was a bad picture of our sport on both sides, but I ultimately hold the referee responsible on both occasions. He either lost control of the match or never had it to begin with.
1. At what point does the referee make the judgment call that both kids obviously thought the whistle was for them and reset them; especially, if one is now in a somewhat defenseless position? In this case they were close to the out of bounds line on a “divided 8/Under” mat, so that is probably why they thought the whistle was for them.
2. At what point does a referee write up a kid for un-sportsman-like conduct?

I know I am being tough on the refs but they are ultimately in control of the mat. Correct?

Let me add that maybe the referee did take some kind of action later; I would not know because I started coaching a match on the adjacent mat soon after the incident. When I looked back over there a minute later it appeared the next match started without pause.

You can bet several first-year “wrestling moms” (one of which I am married to) were not impressed by this scene and asked themselves about the values of the sport we all like to talk so much about. What is a first-year assistant coach to tell them; "that's just part of the sport?" I like to think it should not be. I am looking forward to attending some coach’s clinics in the near future to better educate myself on the official answers.